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Will Bonds take a solo home run trot?
Will Bonds take a solo home run trot?, By: Charles Elmore
May 13, 2007
he National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has approached Barry Bonds about any "artifacts" he might care to share from prospective home run No. 756. That is the blast that would shatter baseball's all-time record.
Bat? Helmet? Jersey? Bonds has put off a definitive answer, saying he wants to focus on winning games. The day is fast approaching - just 11 swats away.
But there are some items he will never offer Cooperstown. Among them: vials of substances known as "the clear" and "the cream," the alleged steroids he has long denied he knowingly used to reach this historic moment.
In many cases, controversies about record-breaking players have emerged into full bloom only after the fact. Take gambling revelations about baseball's hit king, Pete Rose. Or consider Mark McGwire's painful reluctance to discuss steroids before Congress, well past the adulation of his single-season homer record.
This one is different.
Particularly if it happens on the road, Bonds' toppling of Hank Aaron's hallowed mark of 755 home runs could be the most-booed record in sports history.
And the most shunned, starting with the absence of Aaron himself.
One group of Boston fans, for example, wants spectators to turn their backs when Bonds and San Francisco visit June 15-17.
At his current clip - he has 11 home runs in the first six weeks of the season - Bonds could threaten Aaron in mid-June, perhaps as early as June 13 at home against Toronto.
The thought of Bonds getting over in Fenway Park "makes us sick to our stomachs," proclaims fan-protest Web site backs2bonds.com. It says, "It's time for every American who loves the game to make a choice: Will you stand and cheer or turn your back and look away in disgust?"
Baseball's museum will take a more neutral stance, said Jeff Idelson, a Hall vice president who will travel to Bonds' countdown games.
"We don't shy away from certain topics," Idelson said, citing gambling. "Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose are in the museum. Rose has got 20 artifacts on display. There's also information he gambled on baseball and is out of the game."
In this case, one star still in the game has openly criticized Bonds. Boston pitcher Curt Schilling slammed him as an "admitted" steroids user and cheater on his wife and taxes. In fact, Bonds denies all three. Schilling apologized.
"It was a callous, reckless and irresponsible thing to say," Schilling said.
A fan responded on Schilling's Web site (38pitches.com): "Personally, I wasn't offended, and I agreed with every last word you said. While your mea culpa is admirable, I suppose, it won't change the way the fans feel."
Doubt and defiance
Rather than a national lovefest in the mode of Cal Ripken's Iron Man streak, this is a tale of doubt and defiance on all sides.
"The fascinating thing to me is what the reaction will be in the stands," said Pete Macheska, lead producer for baseball on Fox, which will carry the Giants on three straight Saturdays in June, including San Francisco at Boston on June 16.
"If the record falls on our air, I think the biggest mistake we could make is showing too many prepared clips, like Bonds' first home run or Aaron's record-breaker. We don't want to miss what is happening right in front of us."
Bonds can count on a loyal core of support at home in San Francisco, where the Giants play six in a row starting June 8 and nine in a row starting June 22 against the New York Yankees.
He cannot count on the attendance of Aaron, who is taking an intentional walk away from Bonds celebrations. (Aaron said he might fly to West Palm Beach instead, for a golfing vacation.)
Even baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has waffled on his plans for the big day. The Giants have released few details of the ceremonial observance they are preparing.
Outside San Francisco, the imminent toppling of a colossal record - the record - has divided the sport and the nation.
"You kind of have mixed emotions about it because you don't really know what's true and what's not," said Florida Marlins left fielder Josh Willingham. "But he's a great player."
Marlins pitcher Scott Olsen said Bonds deserves to be honored for breaking the record, despite the allegations around him.
"Prove him guilty," Olsen said. "Until you do prove him guilty he's innocent. He should be recognized that way. You know how hard it is to hit a home run?"
Unless Bonds slows down dramatically, the record will likely be resolved before the Marlins face Bonds and the Giants July 27-29 in San Francisco. The Giants visit here Aug. 17-20.
In another time, with another player, the kind of pursuit Bonds has undertaken would be guaranteed to enthrall fans from coast to coast. But how many will watch this record chase remains a question.
Baseball's national TV ratings are up about one-third this season compared to last year, thanks in large part to 4 p.m. starts and choice matchups.
Networks set to capture history, response
And Bonds, tainted or not, is one extraordinary train coming down the tracks.
Fox is looking to add a Giants game to its regular schedule. ESPN, which will carry the Giants against the Mets in New York on Tuesday, May 29, is keeping a watchful eye on yet-unscheduled June dates and trying to secure rights to "cut in" to carry Bonds in games shown on regional networks.
"Whether someone is rooting for it or against it, attention must be paid to it," said Vince Doria, ESPN's senior vice president and director of news. "It is unlike anything else we've seen."
Doria played a leading role in commissioning an ABC/ESPN poll that found seven in 10 Americans believe Bonds knowingly took steroids. Still, more than half said he belongs in the Hall of Fame (as an enshrined player, not just in a museum display).
Controversy has racial overtones
Interestingly, nearly 75 percent of blacks but only 28 percent of whites said they hope Bonds succeeds in breaking the record.
That did not surprise Harry Edwards, a longtime consultant to the San Francisco 49ers with academic credentials in the study of sociology and race.
"If Bonds were white instead of black, we would hear every argument from white fans that many in the black community are making now: He was a Hall of Famer before he was ever accused; and how do we know the pitchers he was facing weren't using steroids?" Edwards said.
Edwards said he has met and talked to Bonds on several occasions, typically in the baseball off-season.
"I told Barry, 'I wish you well,' " Edwards said. " 'I hope you achieve everything you want in baseball. Don't retire. Let history sort it out.' "
In time, most star players come to be viewed with asterisks of one kind or another, related to their eras, Edwards said. Babe Ruth never faced Satchel Paige and other black pitchers. Roger Maris played in a longer season than Ruth when he broke the single-season home run record.
Bonds has his era, Edwards said, adding that we may never know how many players were using steroids during that time. Bonds has never tested positive for performance-enhancers in baseball, although the sport was slow to adopt testing compared to other leagues.
Another famous record chase, McGwire's homer-dueling 1998 season with Sammy Sosa, helped baseball rebound economically from a damaging strike, noted Vince Gennaro, a consultant to MLB teams and the author of Diamond Dollars: The Economics of Winning in Baseball.
The long-term impact of this pursuit is trickier to predict. Still, the short-term effect may be continued high ratings, he suspects. He bets people will wind up feeling compelled to watch when Bonds gets close.
"It may be like watching a car wreck," Gennaro said. "But I think it will capture people's attention."
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